Thread by @uk_domain_names

Facts are immutable. They only come in one version. 2+2 always equals 4.
"Alternative facts" are not facts, they're lies.
Regardless of the political stance of the person asserting it, 2+2 is never 5.
If someone claims 2+2=5 they're lying. Said a billion times, it's still a lie.

You can't change facts through belief or hope or bloody-mindedness. You can't change them by shouting louder than your opponents. You can't change them by trying to drown them in a sea of data. Facts just are. If the football score was 3-2 last Saturday it will never also be 4-6.

At the time of the referendum, the amount of money the UK sent to the EU, the amount of our rebate, and the amounts we got back from various EU sources were all known. There were no unknown unknowns. Everything was clear and defined, with zero room for ambiguity.

So it was impossible to claim "we send £350 million a week to the EU" without lying, because the reality was otherwise. When you say something that directly contradicts reality, you're lying. Maybe inadvertently, because you are genuinely misinformed, but it's still a lie.

And if somebody picks you up on the lie, shows you the evidence that it's a lie, talks you through the truth of the situation - if you are presented with the facts - and you persist in telling the same lie, then you are intentionally deceiving people.

The message on the side of the Leave bus was a lie. It was always a lie. It never became "more true", no matter how many politicians and celebrities were photographed in front of it, or repeated it in interviews or on social media. Those are the facts. That is reality.

Facts don't work like a fire. You can't extinguish them with other lies. ("Person X said Y that was untrue, so 2+2=5.")
No. 2+2=4 for all eternity. What anyone else said or did doesn't change that.
The Leave bus message was a lie. To claim otherwise is to lie. End of story.